In victory, Nuggets coach George Karl is a rooster. Plumage puffed with pride, all Denver is his turf.
“George Karl struts better than any NBA coach I’ve ever seen when he’s winning. He’s the best strutter in the world,’ Nuggets assistant Doug Moe said Thursday. “And he’s the most miserable, depressed person in the game when things are going bad.’
This is Karl’s time to strut.
He roamed the Pepsi Center like he owned the joint from his first step inside the door, then won 32 of 40 games after taking ownership of the lost Nuggets in late January. Karl did it by ignoring the hopelessness and demanding excellence.
Stand back and let the rooster crow.
Let us hope general manager Kiki Vandeweghe does not have delicate toes or tender ears. Because Karl has the personality that can walk all over you. Loudly.
Vandeweghe, architect of a team whose 49-33 record was the best work by your local NBA franchise since 1988, has been pushed to the shadows.
Envy might be the deadliest sin in professional sports, where a dangerous byproduct of success can be vanity.
At the final regular-season home game, while the crowd greeted Karl with reverence, Vandeweghe was reduced to a prop in a prime courtside seat, fishing a $100 bill from his shirt pocket as part of a timeout comedy skit by Rocky, the team’s costumed mascot.
After an admirer recently extended a handshake to Denver’s GM in the locker room, offering congratulations for saving a season from the brink, Vandeweghe shrugged his shoulders and modestly said winning “beats the alternative, that’s for sure.’
Then, wearing jeans and an argyle sweater in his wardrobe for 20 years, Vandeweghe walked quietly down the hallway.
There is nothing quiet about Karl the rooster. A member of the team’s public relations staff fondly calls him “Chatty Cathy.’ The new Nuggets coach can hold court, talking pick-and-roll and hoops psychology until the cows come home.
Karl and Kiki make for an odd couple.
All the power in the organization has followed the applause to Karl, whom Vandeweghe was reluctant to hire, recalling how all the good vibrations that a contentious, honest-
to-a-fault coach brought to previous gigs in Seattle and Milwaukee eventually dissolved into bitterness.
When the Nuggets finally traded and , two pet projects of Vandeweghe’s, there could be little doubt who was calling the shots around here.
The coach and GM certainly have done well by each other.
But can this unlikely marriage last?
Let us pray.
If Nuggets owner Stan Kroenke really wants to win an NBA championship more than anything in sports, he will level the paychecks and alleviate the imbalances between Karl and Vandeweghe before jealousy has any chance to worm its way into their relationship.
Karl was handed a three-year contract, with an option for three more seasons, before he won a game in Denver.
Vandeweghe, whose salary is dwarfed by the money pocketed by the coach, is headed toward the final year of his deal.
Not to suggest the Nuggets would repeat the mistake of another lame-duck situation, but anybody know whatever happened to Jeff Bzdelik?
Vandeweghe displayed far more faith and invested way more millions than I would have in point guard , forward and center . While I was whining, those players showed the Nuggets how to be winners.
In honor of his fortitude, Vandeweghe deserves more than applause.
He has earned a contract extension. And a big raise.
While never denying a chance for a miracle, what the upcoming playoffs are more likely to reveal is a Denver roster in need of more serious retooling.
The Pepsi Center is Karl’s house now. He rules the roost.
But it was Vandeweghe who decorated and furnished the place piece by piece, from drafting forward to ordering video games for the players’ lounge.
For all the bright light reflecting off Karl’s current glory, Denver will one day need a strong leader to pull the coach back from the ledge of his dark moods, when the tough times that beset every sports franchise hit.
If Vandeweghe does not receive half the credit for everything good the Nuggets have done, then nobody should be surprised if the natural tension inherent in every working relationship between a strong coach and smart general manager eventually goes 100 percent wrong.
Winning is never as hard or dangerous as divvying the spoils of victory.
Staff writer Mark Kiszla can be reached at 303-820-5438 or mkiszla@denverpost.com.
